El Monstruo (audience)

"''El Monstruo''" ( en, "The Monster") is the popular designation given in Chile to the audience attending Viña del Mar International Song Festival. The name is due to the great authority of the audience in each day of the event. From pressing to lengthen presentations favorite artists to interruptions with catcalls to singers and comedians who are not talented or funny, booing to prevent them to complete their show and force them to step off from the stage. In that case, in Chile it is said that "''El Monstruo'' ate the artist".

The audience at Viña del Mar International Song Festival is the only one in the world that has received a special name. This creates an expectation in people attending the show, waiting for the slightest opportunity to show their intolerance. Most artists booed by ''El Monstruo'' have been comedians, both for being unfunny or by the misfortune to get on the stage right between performances of singers or bands of renown.

Sometimes, however, the public has manifested catcalls to protest the presenters of the event. This happened in the 2007 edition, when the hosts, Tonka Tomicic and Sergio Lagos, dismissed the artist Ana Torroja to the crowd surprise, it wanted her to keep singing. The spectators booing to Lagos and Tomicic lasted nearly an hour. The same happened in 2009 when ''El Monstruo'' was in favor of Simply Red, booing for an hour for the group to return, and incidentally interrupting the ''Folk Competition'', the singer Paolo Meneguzzi, a humorous routine performed by the trio ''Manpoval'' until they partially calmed their minds with the presentation of Rakim and Ken-Y.

A memorable occasion happened when ''El Monstruo'' asked the '' Gaviota de Plata'' for José Luis Rodríguez in 1988; the refusal of the mayor of Viña del Mar, Eugenia Garrido, who in the 1980s was who corroborated the awards, the singer said: "''Sometimes the people's voice must be heard!''", a phrase which some thought that had a political background in relation to the military regime that was ruling the country; the artist has said that his sentence was not thought out or had a direct political intention.

The most recent manifestation of this phenomenon was in the edition of 2017, during the presentation of the Chilean singer Mon Laferte, who was nicknamed "the woman who woke ''El Monstruo''". She achieved one of the greatest ovations of Quinta Vergara for a Chilean artist living in another country, as well as causing chaos and booing towards the animators and the organization of the event, due to the denial of these to award her the '' Gaviota de Platino''. This award recognizes the career of great artists; and only had been granted to the Mexican singer Luis Miguel in 2012 and to the Spanish singer Isabel Pantoja in the same version of the contest. Given the situation, the host of the festival Carolina de Moras commented in an interview: "She took a much bigger prize, she took the real ovation of La Quinta Vergara and the ''Platino'' can not pay that". The general director of the show, Alex Hernández, also commented, "At that moment I felt that ''El Monstruo'' was something wonderful, I found a wonderful television moment in which it was happening". Hernandez also explained the reason why it was decided not to deliver a second ''Gaviota de Oro'' to the artist to replace the ''Gaviota de Platino'': "We did not deliver it simply because we did not wanted to set a precedent that later could cost us double ''Gaviotas'' with many artists".

Explanation of the phenomenon

The possible reason for the existence of ''El Monstruo'' is over-dimensioned quality public festival to voice their catcalls heavily and for a long time. This is because the place and time of its completion, the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater (located on top of a small hill) and at night, provides a level of noise from the stands to the very large stage, even the whistling of a single person can be heard.

In addition, the gallery is very high in relation to the orchestra, which makes the audience look like a huge mountain of people from stage, simulating to be a semi-coliseum capable of holding 15,000 people in it.

List of ousted artists

Some of the artists that the public of Viña del Mar International Song Festival has prevented from completing their stage show, but there are others that have been split by ''El Monstruo'', that is, some people were booing and other cheering, and others amazingly have managed to silence them.

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, 2013, , LIV, , , , Jorge González, , Singer, , The public was divided against when he alluded to big businessmen, such as Horst Paulmann, Andronico Luksic, the owners of Time Warner (owners from Chilevisión, organizer channel), calling them scoundrels and even to politicians like Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera, which made that part of the audience strongly catcalled him and other ovationed him in the same way, but to sing one of the songs of his ex group Los Prisioneros got that the side booed him to shut up and chanted their songs, to finish his show smoothly.
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, 2014, , LV, , , , Ruddy Rey, , Humorist, , It was catcalled up by the public because this would keep listening to Ana Gabriel, so early in his routine received the boo. Also, his mood through music don't managed the impact he expected.
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, 2015, , LVI, , , , Arturo Ruiz-Tagle, , Humorist, , It was catcalled up by the public when he start his presentation, not just for doing their boy character named ''Arturito'', but it also because much of the audience wanted to return to the songwriter Yusuf Cat Stevens, but after leaving his character and make his routine classic style, he managed to silence the boos and provoke laughter in the audience.
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, rowspan=3, 2016, , rowspan=3, LVII, , , , Pedro Ruminot, , Humorist, , During his routine, a part of the public began to catcall to a joke related to epileptics and the Catholic religion, forcing him to change the course of his routine. Although he received the ''Gaviota de Plata'', Ruminot was carried away by nerves and continued an accelerated presentation without a logical story, which bored the Monster, who booed him tightly until he left the stage.
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, , , Ricardo Meruane, , Humorist, , While he had a good start routine, the catcalls of the public who remembered his poor performance in the 2011 he played a trick and caused nervousness, so his show began to decline, forcing him to leave the stage. The TV hosts tried to give a new opportunity to Meruane, highlighting the courage of comedian for continue their routine to adversity, which was applauded by ''El Monstruo''; however, although he ended up accepting the challenge, the humorist finished boring the audience, forcing him to leave the stage after 45 minutes presentation. He is also remembered by his phrase: ''¡Apaga la luz, loco!'' ('' en, Turn off the light, loony!'') while he was being booed.
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, , , Javiera Mena, , Singer, , The Chilean artist who also officiated jury, was booed by a part of the public during certain times in her presentation, because of their participation days ago during the show of Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz. Mena was invited by Sanz for to make a duet musical in the song ''Corazón parti'o''. Unfortunately, Mena could not remember the lyrics of the chorus, improvising a confused hum and causing both catcalls of public and strong criticism on social networks. However, she managed to silence the boos and emerged victorious with '' Gaviota de Plata'' and ''Gaviota de Oro''.
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, 2017, , LVIII, , , , Rodrigo Villegas, , Humorist, , The humorist had to temporarily interrupt his routine in half due to the boos that came from the gallery, due to a security problem with some people from the audience. Before this and the confusion of Villegas, the hosts had to leave to clarify that the boos were due to this procedure and they were not for him. Despite this setback, he managed to finish with honors his routine, taking the two ''Gaviotas''.
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, rowspan=2, 2018, , rowspan=2, LVIV, , , , Bombo Fica, , Humorist, , The musical intervention of former reality girl Mariela Montero during the routine of humorist generated strong boos, which ended up bothering Montero and forcing the comedian to continue alone, reversing the discomfort of ''El Monstruo''. In addition, the public did not want on stage the Chilean humorist Willy Benítez, who was invited by Bombo Fica in a part of his show for his long career; nevertheless, when Bombo gives his '' Gaviota'' to Benítez, ''El Monstruo'' was more understanding and relaxed towards the presentation of the comedian.
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, , , Jenny Cavallo, , Humorist, , While the comedian was finalizing her routine, she was interrupted by boos that came from the gallery due to a security procedure, because a woman in the audience had fainted during the show. Before the confusion of Cavallo, the animators had to go out to clarify to her that the boos were due to this procedure and they were not for her. Despite this setback, she managed to finish his routine by taking the '' Gaviota de Plata''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monstruo
Music festivals in Chile
Observation